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Due north is Amarillo, and that’s where what was then called the National Women’s Invitation Tournament began in 1969.The Flying Queens of Wayland Baptist won the title the first nine years of the event.
Also in 1969, there was a national intercollegiate women’s tournament at West Chester State in Pennsylvania; one of that school’s top players then was future Kansas coach Marian Washington.
That event stayed on the East coast two more years, then the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women had its first tournament in 1972.
That would continue through 1982, when the NCAA began sponsoring a women’s national postseason tournament.
Through all this, the NWIT remained in Amarillo, where up until 1996 it was an eight-team, three-day event that was funded by area businesses.
Schools had to pay their own way to get to the tournament, though, ...
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